Lanco Infratech Ltd has signed up with the state-owned China Development Bank to raise $2 billion debt (about Rs 11,100 crore) for two power projects — Anpara Phase II and Himawat, each with a capacity of 2x660 MW.
Of the $2 billion required to be raised, $600 million will be contributed by the China Development Bank and it will syndicate the balance from Chinese banks and financial institutions.
The diversified infrastructure company has an operating capacity of 4,740 MW and another 4,636 MW is under various stages of execution. Lanco aims at 13,000-MW operating capacity by 2015.
K. Raja Gopal, CEO, Lanco Power Ltd, signed the MoU on behalf of Lanco with Zheng Zhijie, Governor of China Development Bank.
L. Madhusudhan Rao, Chairman, Lanco, said: “We are pleased to have the large China Development Bank as a stakeholder in our power projects. This will help improve the economies of the project and complete them within the stipulated time.’’
“This MoU ushers an era of strategic cooperation between the two organisations and will go a long way in augmenting the financial capabilities of the Lanco group,’’ he said.
“For the past couple of quarters, we have been working on strategies to address the liquidity concerns due to delay in receivables from utilities. The transaction comes at a time when many are saying that the market conditions are quite unfavourable and sentiments are impacted,’’ he added.
“We are also in the process of addressing the debt equity ratio at the same time,’’ he said.
China Development Bank has already sanctioned $200 million buyers’ credit for Amarkantak 3&4, Babandh and Vidarbha power projects being developed by Lanco Group.
It has sanctioned over $7 billion to Indian corporations and has an outstanding amount of over $4.3 billion.
Lanco Infratech has an EPC order book of Rs 28,500 crore.